


Where They Belonged

by Gilli_ann



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 03:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1841797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gilli_ann/pseuds/Gilli_ann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill's story helps Sam cope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where They Belonged

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings and its characters belong to the Tolkien Estate. I intend no copyright infringement and certainly make no money from this.

_"Go with words of guard and guiding on you," he said. "You are a wise beast, and have learned much in Rivendell. Make your ways to places where you can find grass, and so come in time to Elrond's house, or wherever you wish to go."  
 **"A Journey in the Dark, FOTR"**_

 

Sam stood silently on the shore of Middle-earth. Watching the grey ship disappearing, seeing the last flash of Galadriel’s phial that Frodo held aloft, he kept stroking Bill’s warm and soft muzzle gently, over and over again. He tried to fathom the fact that Mr. Frodo had left, that he’d gone for ever to stay with all those elves there in the West, that he never would return. How could he leave his Sam behind? 

Sobs kept escaping him in the deepening gloom, and Bill whinnied softly, distressed by his master’s mood.

The pony’s warm solid presence gave Sam a strange comfort in the middle of his overwhelming grief. He leaned tiredly against Bill’s flank as the hours passed, and continued staring out into the dark night, out over the sea that had taken Frodo away. On the other side of that ink-black ocean was a distant, lushly green shore, and a strange land filled with powers and marvels, high knowledge and beauty, a home to all those tall, wise, bright elves. 

Behind them, equally covered in darkness, lay the beloved Shire, the villages, farmsteads, the Hill, Bag End.

Bill put his head on Sam’s shoulder and snorted a little, a familiar sound reminding Sam of home and comfort and hay and a snug, warm stable. Ever since they set out from Rivendell all that time ago, Bill had had that calming effect on Sam. Sturdy, faithful Bill, who had carried Mr. Frodo when he was hurt so bad, had born their heavy gear out of Rivendell, had been left alone in the wilds with the howling wolves and mysterious snake monsters and nothing except some words from Mr. Gandalf as thanks. Sam really hadn’t never deserved to find Bill again, whole and well there in Bree, and that was a fact. 

Bree…… Bill had returned to Bree, not to Rivendell.

When left alone in the wilderness, Bill had not traveled the shorter route back to bright Rivendell with its care and food and comfort and lofty stables filled with beautiful, white elvish horses with fancy names. Bill had dared the longer route back to a familiar, homely place, a place of farms and men and hobbits and many other ponies, the place he knew to be home and where he fitted in, even though he’d suffered there earlier at the hands of that nasty scoundrel Bill Ferny. Returning to Bree, the pony had even risked ending up in Bill Ferny’s clutches again. Still, Bree was where he’d gone, through all those lonely hungry miles in the wilderness.

Sam felt a strange kinship with the pony. Suddenly his heart opened to the truth: Just like Bill would feel uneasy living in bright Rivendell, so he himself would have pined uncomfortably among elves citing poetry in foreign languages beside perfect fountains under strange skies. He needed the soil of home, his own little garden to tend, his own kind around him, his own familiar world to cultivate and develop. He needed the Shire and everyone in it, he needed his practical good-natured wife, his sweet little daughter, his gaffer and all the others in his considerably-sized family. 

His heart was filled to overflowing with grief at his parting from Mr. Frodo, but it also began brimming with dawning gratitude and understanding. Mr. Frodo had thanked him by leaving him with the Shire, by ensuring that he had no other choice at present than staying one and whole in the place where he belonged. His master had gone on alone with no other hobbit than old, frail Mr. Bilbo for company…. so that Sam would remain where he could thrive, and truly live and be happy, and so make a difference. 

Mr. Frodo had seen it, Sam could see it, and Bill had shown that he knew it too: Sam and Bill belonged with other hobbits and ponies, not with the elves. 

As morning dawned, the two of them joined Mr. Merry and Mr. Pippin, leaving the Grey Havens and the graceful elves behind. They were going home.


End file.
